US horror: Hyderabad students spend helpless 16 hours with no food, water

The deportation of the Indian Students when they were on their way to US varsities was not less than a nightmare, adding to the worries they were force to spend 16 hours without food and water.

Students from Telugu states who applied for the MS course at Northwestern Polytechnic University, California recount the horror of the night when they were stopped in Abu Dhabi from boarding a flight to San Francisco on December 21.

According to HT news, a 23-year-old student who was sent back to Hyderabad recalling the horror says that “I took an Etihad flight and my immigration check was in Abu Dhabi. US officials first checked my documents which were clear but then asked us to wait for another round of scrutiny. And there in a room, I sat with some more students for 16 hours without food or water. The officials did not even permit us to go out for a snack,” he said.

“No one was there to listen to us. After 16 hours of trial, officials declared that our visa is cancelled. They didn’t give a reason. We could not argue but gathered from them that the universities we applied for are not genuine,” said the student whose woes did not end there.

More to that he had to wait in the terminal for more than six hours at Hyderabad Airport for clearance. His worried parents waited outside all along. He later tried contacting the university via email but has yet to receive a reply. “I am sad but firm that I would go to the US for my studies,” he said.

This is just not just the case of one student, about 19 students faced the similar situation. Just few days back it is reported that another 20 students were deported at Chicago Airport.

Several students have deferred their travel plans in wake of the controversy. “I had a ticket on Etihad for December 27 which I cancelled. Now I have decided to postpone my plans till everything becomes clear,” said Mohammed Mazhar, who applied for an MBA in the US.

However Minister of external affairs directs the students not to plan for the US varsities unless the matter settles down.